Friday, November 8, 2024
UNRWA 2
These laws are to be implemented at the end of a 90 day transition period. When these laws are implemented logistical support to other un agencies and international groups providing humanitarian aid in Gaza would also stop. Aid groups say UNRWA's wide ranging responsibilities make it irreplaceable.
The UN does not have a contingency plan for when UNRWA stops working and does not have a means of preventing the laws from taking effect. Norway said it would ask the General Assembly to seek a ruling from the International Court of Justice to determine whether it violates international law. Biden administration says that it opposes the law. The new laws have overwhelming Israeli support. Two thirds of knesset backed this law though some diplomats expressed concerns about blocking UNRWA without alternative plans. The UN created UNRWA to protect Palestinian refugees in 1948 when the state of Israel was established.
It's staff has grown to 30,000 and consists of nearly all Palestinians with operations in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and serve 6 million Palestinian refugees. Western nations pay for its $1.3 trillion budget. Israel's allegations against UNRWA prompted 16 countries to stop funding UNRWA. According to the Israeli Prime Minister the UNRWA is infiltrated with Hamas. Israeli intelligence estimates that 10 per cent of the agency's 12,000 staff in Gaza is affiliated or have membership in Hamas or Palestinian Islamic jihad. The UN has denied that there are a large number of militants in UNRWA's ranks. This complicated story raises several questions. It is sacrilegious that a UN relief agency is infiltrated with Hamas. How much truth is there in the Israeli allegation that a relief agency from the United Nations the most humanitarian organization in the world has militants or members affiliated to the Hamas as its employees. Secondly why would a refugee camp that started in 1948 still need relief agencies. Has the refugee camp become a community? If so they could very well become a self sufficient independent community even if they do not have a nation status.
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